Write a message with water

(Scientists have used nanotechnology to create "wet selection" materials, which can be used to write messages that can persist with water.

The concept, called "hydroglyphics" , was launched by scientists at Harvard University, who recently collaborated with Merrimack's group, NH, high school students and teachers to create a educational demo.

The trial, appropriately named 'Hydroglyphics' helps people visualize the difference between pushing water and wetting surfaces. The basic principle behind hydroglyphics (a combination of "hydrogen" and "hieroglyphs" ) is by changing the properties of a surface, you can create your own special prints. you by using water. All you need is a few sticker stickers, a modified Tesla roll and a Petri dish.

Each read member holds a Petri dish and chooses a favorite sticker, attach it to the bottom of the disc. The demo artist then placed each of the plates under the Tesla roll, and defeated them. A purple spark appeared with a loud noise. Every time the sticker is removed, water is added to the disc. Water fills everywhere except on the area where the sticker has created an 'engraved print' . This message may exist for about a month.

Harvard scientist - Philseok Kim, the first author on this demo, came across the idea of ​​hydroglyphics. While helping one of Merrimack's teachers, Raymond Sleeper, came up with a new demo, he experimented with lab equipment that was being used for other research projects.

'I experimented (demo) on a Petri dish, to see the difference between the hydrophilic and hydrophobicity we can create , ' said Kim of the Wyss research institute. 'To our surprise, it uniquely creates a striking contrast'.

Original Petri dishes have a waterproof (hydrophobic) plastic structure. When treated with Tesla coils, the air becomes electrically conductive and oxygen combined with the plastic, making the Petri dish surface attract water (water repellent). However, the area under the sticker has been protected from the air, so it still pushes water. The water in the plate sticks to the hydrophobic areas, keeping the message area dry.

The demo of hydroglyphics was successful wherever researchers took it, Kim said."Purple palace with hilarious zapping noises, cute and colorful stickers, and mysterious messages . all of them are a series of clinking moments that only happen in a few minutes. I think this is a really interesting combination. "